Teardown indicates Pixels may see timers started on Assistant smart displays and speakers
According to a recent teardown, Google is working on a feature that would allow Pixels (or potentially other devices cajoled into using the Pixel version of the At a Glance widget) to view timers started on other Assistant smart displays or speakers. This Cross Device Timer, as strings for the feature call it, sounds like you can start a timer on, say, your Nest Hub in the kitchen and follow its progress from your Pixel phone if an errand takes you away.
As with all unannounced features divined from an app teardown, this is only a sign that Google is working on a feature and not proof that it will happen or arrive in the state described. However, details in a 9to5Google teardown of a beta v13.26 of the Google app reveal two strings for a “Cross Device Timer” feature that claims to show “timer info from your home devices.” The context of those two strings is paired with an icon that shows a speaker in front of a display. With all that, it’s easy to draw a connection that indicates these “home devices” the feature can pull timer details from are probably Assistant-connected displays and speakers — think Nest Hubs, Audios, and Minis, plus potentially other third-party Assistant speakers and displays like Lenovo’s Smart Displays.
A crop of the feature’s related icon.
It’s unclear how many timers this feature might display or if other details associated with them will be visible. For example, when you set a timer on your Nest Hub, you can give it a name — handy if you’re doing something complicated like cooking a bunch of different things for a big dinner, each with its own timed actions. It’s also not clear if you’ll be able to see which device the timer has been synced from or if and how you can act on these timers in other ways, like dismissing them or extending them in a way that will sync back.
Google’s At a Glance widget is built-in and part of the default software experience on Pixels, available in the default launcher and lock screen. The widget can show details like upcoming calendar appointments, weather, doorbell alerts, and more based on what’s happening. You can also add a more limited version of the At a Glance as a normal widget to most other devices, courtesy of the Google app itself. However, this version of the widget available to customers on other phones is more limited, lacking even the existing integration for on-device timers. I suspect this cross-device timer sync feature, if and when it debuts, will be Pixel-specific, potentially planned for a future Feature Drop.
For customers with Assistant-connected speakers and displays, functionality like this is long-awaited. More than one of us at Android Police has expressed excitement at the prospect, noting with more than a little humor that (some) Android phones will get cross-platform timers before iPhones can even run more than one at a time — a limitation on iOS that remains confusing and embarrassing when the Apple Watch, HomePod, and most Android devices can handle such a simple task with no issue.
